the official blog of petergayed.com. original tumblr design by the remarkably talented hayden hunter. rss feed for this blog is here: http://tumblr.petergayed.com.
Lera Boroditsky (Professor of Psychology, Stanford) talks about the old “does language determine how we think” question on Edge. Conducting experiments with the Kuuk Thaayorre, an Aboriginal people in northern Australia, she finds some remarkable things.
The Kuuk Thaayorre have an extraordinary sense of space. In their language, they speak not of turning left, right, ahead, or back, but about going north, south, east, or west—something they seem to do at all times and in all conditions (e.g., even if you blindfolded, spun, and then led them into your parents’ basement).
To test the theory empirically, Boroditsky showed her subjects a set of cards depicting “a man aging, a crocodile growing, or a banana being eaten.” English speakers arrange the cards from left to right. Speakers of Hebrew, from right to left. The Kuuk Thaayorre, on the other hand, reliably arranged the cards from east to west:
The Kuuk Thaayorre did not arrange the cards more often from left to right than from right to left, nor more toward or away from the body…Instead of arranging time from left to right, they arranged it from east to west. That is, when they were seated facing south, the cards went left to right. When they faced north, the cards went from right to left. When they faced east, the cards came toward the body and so on. This was true even though we never told any of our subjects which direction they faced. The Kuuk Thaayorre not only knew that already (usually much better than I did), but they also spontaneously used this spatial orientation to construct their representations of time.
That’s neat!
